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Alarming Dangers in School Zones, 2016

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Alarming Dangers in School Zones, 2016 Alarming Dangers in School Zones October 2016 Alarming Dangers in School Zones The Facts About Teen Pedestrians Age 15-19 In 2015, while teens ages 15-19 week 5 / 13% made up 26 percent of all There are 5 teen pedestrian There has been a children ages 0-19 years, they deaths every week in the 13% increase in the made up about half of the United States. pedestrian death rate pedestrian fatalities. for 12-19 year olds since 2013. population pedestrian deaths We observed 39,000 middle and high school students and 56,000 drivers in school zones in 2016. Distracted walking is Distracted teens Unsafe street crossing Unsafe drop-o or on the rise. We observed it were most likely to be wearing behavior was observed in pick-up behavior was in 1 in 4 high school students headphones or texting. about 80% of students. observed in nearly and 1 in 6 middle school 1 in 3 drivers. students. 44% 1 in 4 l o o h h sc igh l 1 in 6 o o h sc m iddle 31% What Communities Can Do to Protect Kids on the Move Install proven Set and enforce speed Implement and interventions, like limits in school zones at enforce school crosswalks, speed no more than 20 mph. drop-o/pick-up limits, visible signs policies. Low speed limits and trac lights. (≤20 mph) were Educate parents Marked crosswalks were observed in only and students about missing in 3 out of 10 about 4 out of 10 dangerous walking observed crossings. school zones. and driving habits (e.g., crossing mid-block, texting or talking on the phone.) For more information visit safekids.org Al Executive Summary In 2015, 284 teens ages 12-19 were killed while walking; that’s more than 5 pedestrian deaths every week. Overall, the pedestrian death rate in children ages 19 and under has decreased in the last 20 years. While this is good news, the rate for teens ages 12-19 has not dropped as quickly as that for younger children. Despite the historic 20-year downward trend, in the past two years there has actually been a 13 percent increase in the pedestrian death rate for 12-19 year olds,1 presenting a renewed challenge for protecting kids on the move. With the support of FedEx, Safe Kids Worldwide set out in spring 2016 to revisit the issue of pedestrian distraction in teens. We observed the street crossing behavior of more than 39,000 middle and high school students walking to and from school, with a focus on unsafe walking behaviors and distraction by mobile devices. We also made more than 56,000 driver observations during student drop-off/pick-up to assess for distraction and other unsafe driving behaviors. Schools were surveyed regarding policies addressing cell phone and headphone use and driver drop-off/pick-up procedures. Finally, we explored the impact of two simple, inexpensive, real-time ways to increase awareness of the risks and decrease unsafe behavior – road stencils for pedestrians and lawn signs for drivers. We found that distraction and other forms of unsafe street crossing behavior are persistent risks for students traveling within school zones. Seventeen percent of middle school students and 27 percent of high school students observed were distracted by mobile devices. Distracted teens were wearing headphones (44 percent), texting (31 percent), talking on the phone (18 percent) or a combination of the three (7 percent). Assuming comparability of the 2016 results with our previous study from 2013 "Teens And Distraction: An In-Depth Look at Teens' Walking Behaviors," distracted walking increased from 1 in 5 to more than 1 in 4 among high school students and from 1 in 8 to 1 in 6 for middle school students.2 Beyond distraction, we observed that many school zones are not as safe as they could be and that there was a lot of other risky street crossing behavior observed. Only about 4 out of 10 school zones had speed limits of 20 miles per hour (mph) or less and marked crosswalks were missing in 3 out of 10 crossings. Students were observed crossing against the lights, not looking before crossing or not crossing at a designated crossing. In all, 83 percent of middle school students and 76 percent of high school students were observed engaging in at least one of these unsafe street crossing behaviors, suggesting the need to ensure safe crossing environments and continued education regarding the risks of unsafe pedestrian behavior in these age groups. We found that distraction by mobile devices and other unsafe driving behaviors were also an issue among drivers during student drop-off/pick-up. Approximately 1 in 10 drivers were distracted by mobile devices while arriving or departing from the school and nearly 1 in 3 displayed other unsafe behaviors, such as double parking or stopping in the middle of a crosswalk while dropping off students. We found that school policies governing drop-off/pick-up make a difference in unsafe driving behavior, but only when policies were reported to be enforced. Lower speed limits also reduced the likelihood of unsafe driver behavior. Alarming Dangers in School Zones 3 Finally, while further evaluation is needed, we found that both the road stencils and lawn signs encouraging “Heads Up Phones Down” reduced distracted behavior among pedestrians and drivers. With child pedestrian deaths on the rise, Safe Kids is asking communities to take action to protect kids on the move. Communities Can: • Identify high risk school zones and aggressively pursue proven interventions, like crosswalks, appropriate speed limits, visible signs, crossing guards and traffic lights. • Educate parents and students about dangerous walking and driving habits, e.g., crossing mid-block, texting or talking on the phone. • Set and enforce speed limits in school zones at no more than 20 miles per hour. • Implement and enforce school policies regarding drop-off and pick-up of students. To take action, reach out to your school officials and local elected officials. For more information, visit safekids.org. 4 Safe Kids Worldwide Al Trends in Mobile Device Use Research has shown that walking while distracted by technology, like a phone or headphones, is common for teens ages 12-19 and is an important factor in many pedestrian injuries.2-12 Increases in mobile device ownership and the many things they can be used for, like texting, music, social media and gaming, mean that teens are using their devices more and more, and this may be impacting distracted walking levels and contributing to the increase in pedestrian injuries for this age group.8,11,13-14 Consider this – when you are walking, are you using a mobile device? Are other walkers around you more engaged in their mobile devices than their surroundings? It seems that even though the issue of pedestrian distraction has gained national attention, mobile device use is up and walking while distracted has become commonplace. The proportion of American teens who own a cell phone has almost doubled, going from 45 percent in 2004 to 88 percent in 2015.12-13 A majority of teens with cell phones (91 percent) send text messages and studies estimate that the typical teen sends and receives 30 to 50 text messages a day, with the highest levels of texting among girls ages 15 to 17.14 Talking on the phone, on the other hand, has become far less common. In 2009, a third of teens used a cell phone to talk to their friends daily, but by 2011 only a quarter did so.13 Today mobile devices are used for much more than talking and texting; recent polls suggest that 91 percent of teens use a mobile device to access the internet, with more than half doing so several times a day and a quarter going online “almost constantly.”14 Eight out of 10 older teens and nearly 7 out of 10 younger teens regularly use social media networks like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to share pictures and videos, exchange messages, post status updates and participate in online discussions.14-15 New services which allow different ways to access music and video online are another example of how advancements in technology affect daily life. Music streaming almost tripled in a two-year period from 2013 to 2015, going from 106 billion to 317 billion streams.16 In 2013, Safe Kids Worldwide, with support from FedEx, carried out a major observational study exploring pedestrian distraction in teens. Given the increasing levels of ownership and use of mobile devices by teens, we thought it timely to take another look at the issue, as well as to explore other pedestrian safety factors. In spring 2016, we teamed up with FedEx again to assess the current state of technological distraction among teen pedestrians. We also looked at driver behavior during student drop-off/pick-up in school zones and explored the impact of two simple, inexpensive, real-time strategies to make walking near schools safer. Alarming Dangers in School Zones 5 What We Know about Pedestrian Injuries Overall, the rate of fatal pedestrian injuries in children has dropped dramatically in the United States in the last 20 years, but the reduction has differed with age. The fatality rates in children under age 12 have dropped by 74 percent since 1995. Older children are a different story. For teens ages 12-19, the fatality rate has only dropped 37 percent in the last 20 years. While this is good progress, a look into the death rate in the last few years shows an increase.
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